SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PROJECT REPORT CS2310 SPRING 2005 NEGOTIATION PROTOCOLS By Anjana Divakar

Abstract: With the advent of computer technology and the internet ,consumers prefer to conduct their business electronically .These electronic transactions have to be monitored and carried out efficiently .This paper focuses on the need and construction of negotiation protocols for e commerce and also provide distance services through negotiation. 1. Introduction: There exist many conceptualizations of negotiation. Adopting the framework of Jennings et al. negotiation is decomposed into the following components. !egotiation protocols negotiation o"jects and agents# decision making models. !egotiation protocols define the rules that govern the negotiation. !egotiation o"jects represent the matter the participants negotiate over. Agents# decision making models are the decision making apparatus that participants employ to achieve their o"jectives in accordance with the protocol $%&. 'n this paper the focus is on "uilding negotiation protocols using the (eo )oordination language to demonstrate how it can help in solving the task of providing care to senior citizens in a minimum amount of time while maximizing work and utilizing the resources given effectively. The rest of the paper has the following organization. The (eo coordination language is introduced and o"serving the outcome of using (eo with negotiation protocols is detailed. )onclusion and future scope are outlined. 2. T ! R!o Coordin"tion L"n#u"#!: (eo presents a paradigm for composition of software components "ased on the notion of channels. (eo enforces a channel "ased coordination model that defines how designers can "uild complex coordinators out of simpler ones. Application designers think of (eo as a *glue code+ for compositional construction of connectors that are

responsi"le for coordinating all the activities of component instances in a component "ased system $%&. !egotiation protocols have "een identified with three pro"lems in an open electronic negotiation environment $%&, %. Lack of common understanding of the protocol, -ormal semantics are not provided there"y confusing the participants and preventing a common understanding of the protocol. .. Lack of support for temporary business constellation: /ince participants# shared interests are only temporary they are free to "reak off or leave during the course of the negotiation process at any ar"itrary moment in time. 0. Inability to deal with nested negotiations: Aside from the negotiation among participants negotiation is re1uired while forming an alliance. !ested negotiation is re1uires the a"ility to compose one negotiation protocol with the other ones in a systematic manner. (eo overcomes the a"ove mentioned pro"lems that negotiation protocols face. (eo provides formal semantics offers dynamic reconfigura"ility and composa"ility. 2.1 T!r$% "nd Conc!&t%: (eo views a system to "e made up of component instances that interact through connectors. -ocus is given on the communication "etween the component instances which takes place through the connectors. (eo allows composition of a connector out of simpler connectors where channels represent atomic connectors. A channel has two channel ends namely sink and source. /ink dispenses data out of its channel while source accepts data into its channel. (eo models a connector as a graph of nodes and edges. There are three types of nodes namely sink source and mixed. A mixed node contains "oth source and non2deterministically selects a data item availa"le at one of its sink channel ends and replicates the data item to all of its source channel ends when all of them can accept the data item. A source node contains only source channel ends. 'f a component writes a data item to a source node the node replicates the data item to all of its source channel ends when all of them can accept the data item. A sink node contains only sink channel ends. 3hen a component tries to take a data item from a sink node the node non2 deterministically selects a data item availa"le at one of its sink channel ends $%&. '. (%in# R!o to con%truct n!#oti"tion &rotoco)%: This project aims at using negotiation protocols to provide care for senior citizens "ased on time constraints and availa"ility of services.

An !*"$&)! "t "&&ro"c in# t ! &ro+)!$ i% % o,n +!)o,: There are ! !urses trying to nurse / senior citizens located at 4 locations in T time slots. /chedules will have to "e generated so that all !urses will start the day and end the day from their location 4n. 3ork (ule 5 All nurses will work on fixed regular day time and there is a max num"er of senior citizens nursed per day.

epresentation: The a"ove pro"lem can "e sym"olically represented as, %. ! 6 the set of nurses 7!% !. !08.!i9 .. 4 6 the set of locations of senior citizens 74% 4. 40 8.4j9 4n 6 the set of locations for the !urses 74n% 4n. 4n0 8.4np9. :ach /chedule is associated with a nurse ! will start and end with the location of associated nurse. 0. / 6 /enior citizens located in 4 to "e nursed for the timeslot T3. There could "e the possi"ility that one or more senior citizens can "e availa"le in a 4ocation. This can "e represented as 4 6 ;/% /.8/n< =. T3 6 3ork time slots. These time slots are varia"le time slots depending on the work re1uest specified from senior citizens. !trategy: The senior citizens all need care at different or may"e at the same time and make re1uests for services. !urses are allotted to provide care for them and one nurse may"e allotted to more than one patient>senior citizen. /ome form of negotiation is needed to ensure that all patients are attended to and given treatment without any delay using minimum num"er of nurses and within a short time span.

The patients "asically make re1uests or "ids for a time slot T3 for their treatment. !urses are allocated according to the availa"ility of their schedule. 'f more than . patients make a "id>re1uest at the same time and at that instant only one nurse is currently availa"le then the patient with greater priority is given preference. The other patient waits his turn until the next nurse is free from attending to her previous patient.

Techni"ue: All patients must first register with the initiator who keeps a track of all the mem"ers in this case the patients. The patients after they register give their priority num"er. The priority num"ers are stored in a 1ueue. The "id validator checks to see which priority num"er is highest. The patient with the highest priority is allocated the first nurse. The next nurse is allocated to the patient with the second highest priority and so on.!urse% may "e allocated to more than one patient since the num"er of nurses is limited when compared to the num"er of patients. ?nce their re1uest has "een carried out the patient can leave the group after informing the initiator. The patient can rejoin the group again "y registering with the initiator. The (eo 4anguage is modified to provide this kind of scenario. A circuit detailing the se1uence of events and how time slots are allotted to the senior citizens>patients is done in an effective manner. The "asic idea is to maximize work or services in a minimum amount of time using the resources effectively.

5. Circuit -i"#r"$: Initiator auction bid validator

registration 1ueue D B d a " c """"" Bit valid a a@" "

true false

/ervice given won !o service yet lost

nurse nurse nurse

service

(esult generator

All re1uests are sent to the data"ase DB where the patients register for services. The priority num"ers are placed in a 1ueue. The data"ase containing particulars a"out the nurses is also maintained "y the initiator. 'n the "id validator stage the priorities are checked one "y one and compared to see which priority is the highest. The highest priority is sent to the next stage which is the *auction stage+. )orrespondingly the initiator keeps track of the nurses who are in the data"ase and once the "id vaildator indicates the value true or valid "id to the initiator the initiator sends the information that a nurse is availa"le and her services will "e rendered to the patient. 'f not the result no service rendered will "e given as a result.

.. Conc)u%ion: 'n this paper specifying negotiation protocols using (eo coordination language is provided. (eo has several noteworthy attri"utes such as dynamic reconfigura"ility that make it an easy language to "uild negotiation protocols on. The formal semantics also ena"le one to o"tain a clear understanding of the protocol used. (eo#s circuit is so designed that any modifications can "e made at run time if re1uired. /. Futur! Wor0: As part of future work there is still room for improvement in implementing the circuit modeled on (eo. ' would like to study negotiation protocols in detail and investigate other possi"le areas where they could "e put to use in a distri"uted environment.

REFERENCES:

%.Diakov !ilolay and Alatev Alatko *)onstructions of !egotiation Brotocols for :2 )ommerce Applications+ ..4emniotes T and Ar"a" -arhad *)oordinating 3e" /ervices using )hannel Based )ommunication+ 0.-arrugia James *4ogical /ystems,Towards Brotocols for 3e"2Based Ceaning !egotiation+ =.Bichler Cartin *A (oad Cap to Auction Based !egotiation Brotocols for :lectronic )ommerce+